Food curing and smoking apparatus



iiiiiiiin STATES PATENT orricii.

-RA'LPH n'. CASEY, or SEATTLE, wnsiiiNGroN.

FOOD CURING. A ND SMOKING APPARATUS.

appiication sied october 8,1919. serial No. 329,181.

To all Iwhom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, RALPH-R. Cassina citizen of the United States,residing at Seattle, in the county of King andlStat'e of Washington,have invented certain'new and useful Improvements in Food Curing .andSmoking Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to apparatus for drying and vsmoking comestiblessuch, for example, as herring. f

The object of the invention is the provision of inexpensively operatedapparatus' 'wherebyfish, or otherarticles of food may be dried or smokedin a most efficient manner.

The invention consists inthe novel construction, arrangement andcombination of devices as will be hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a horizontal sectional View ofapparatus embodying my inventionV said section being taken through 1--1of Iig. 2. Fig. 2 is a elevation of the same.v

longitudinal verticalsection, shown some1 what diagrammatically. Fig. 3is an end Fig. 4 is a transverse detail sectional view through. thesmoke chamber, showing the preferred construction of a conveyer drivingroller and associated parts. Fig. 5 is a fragmentary plan .view of thefront end of the vapparatus to illustrate, more especially, devices.

The' reference numeral 10 designates a chamber wherein the drying and.smoking ofarticles, hereinafter referred to as fish,

the "feeding through the medium of air and smoke or by an admixture ofboth which is supplied into the front end of the chamber from arotary'ing about sprocket wheels 14 provided at opposite ends ofI the liveroller 15 about which a-'belt travels at the. front end of the 4diatethey rollers therefor chamber.. 16 represents idler rollers providedadJacent to the. rear. end of the'chamber, for the respective belts.vThe belt fabrics are furthermore supported intermeb transverselyarranged slats, such as 17, ig. 4, attached to the fabrics andtracking'upon rails 18 secured to the sidewalls 19 of the chamber.

As indicated byfarrows in Fig; 2, said conveyers'are driven in oppositedirections so .that the fish when placed upon the conveyer a, aftertraveling rearwardly therewith, will drop ontoA the conveyer b to be..

carried forwardly thereby to drop onto the conveyer c, .and so on,traveling back and drop from the lowest one vh into a transversedischarge conveyer 20. The conveyers b, c, cZ-t are driven by a train ofgears, indin cated generally by 21, the primary shaft b1 of saidtrain-of gears is driven b a belt 22 from a pulley 221 on a po'wersha23l which also serves, throughLa-pulley24 and a belt 241, to' drive apulley'25 upon the arbor 111 of the blower 11 to .rotate the same.

The \conveyer a which extends through openings provided 'thereforin't'he front wall Ispecification of Letters' Patent., Ptnted Apng',

. forth upon -the successive conveyers to finally 4 101 of said chamberis preferably-driven from roller shaft 01, by means of a sprocket chain,indicated by 27, passing about wheels 28 and 281 mounted on the sliaftsa1 and c1 of the respective conveyer rollers.

' Said blower fan is inclosed in a casing 29 of' 9o having an outlet 30into the front en chamberlO and an yinlet passage 31,1Fig.` 1,

leading from a casing 32,' Within the latter are radiators or coils 33which are heated the medium of steam supplied by athrou h pipe g4 from aboiler, not shown. At its end remote from the b ljower connection 31,the casing 32 is connected by a duct 35l with a smokegenerator 36. Theduct 35 is also connected through a passage 37, Fig. 3, with theoutlet'end 371 of a return smoke flue 38 extending from the rear end ofchamber 10'.l 39 represents `a valve provided in the duct 35 and ispivoted at 391. between the genera- .tor and the passage 37`so as to beused upon occasion to close, more or less, the communication between theheater casing32 and the return smoke fine 38 or the smoke generator 36selectively. 40 represents openings provided at opposite sides of thecasing' 32 forl the admission of air into the latter from .the externalatmosphere, vsaid openings being located adjacent to the top of thecasing .and are provided with doors 41 to regulate being depositeddirectly from the elevator upon the-uppermost conveyer is deliveredv.upon an apron 44 which serves to distribute I so.

the fish in a substantially. even manner 'over subjacent portion of thereferred to conveyer.

Said apron or distributer, as shown in.

Figs. 2 and 5, comprises a plate formed of `semi-conoidal1 shape securedto a support 45 below the delivery end of the elevator and havingupwardly protruding rib elements 46, Fig. 5, extending from the apexradially to the periphery ofthe apron.

- 47 represents guide bars which prevent -the fish falling from theupperconveyer` at -the sides of the apron 44.

There tlieconveyer passes into the smoke cliamberIprovide doors orcurtains 48 hung from their'ftop edges and opening inwardly of thechamber to allow the fish passing unobstructedlvthereinto andprevent-ing any (substantialy loss of the smoke. At one side of thechamber 10 are provided doors 49 to A afford access intothe chamber forinspecting the fish to observe the action ofthe smoke |and air so thatthe relative volumes thereof may be regulated when deemed necessary.

Then the apparatus is in use the fish are delivered from the elevator 43upon the apron 44 to be thereby distributed over the adjacent end of theconveyer a. are carried thereby into the smoke chamber l0 to be droppedupon the rear end of the second conveyer. b to be carried thereon to theforward end of the chamber whereat they are deposited upon the thirdconveyer c and so -on successively the fish are carried -back and forthuntil deposited from the lowest conveyer la, 'into the discharge'convever 20.

.In their travel in the vchamber the fish are exposed to the gases,smoke and air, to any required extent.

r1`he smoke produced in the generator 36 is drawn by fan 11 through theduct 35 and heater 3i) to be discharged into the front end of thechamber 10 through Which it progressively travels and is withdrawn fromthe remote end of the' 'chamber through return pipe 38 to mix with afurther. supply of smoke, if required, in the duct 35.

f The smok'e in such circulatory travel is The fish accompanied,however, by a suitable quantity of atmospheric air which is admittedthrough inlet openings 4() at opposite sides of the heater -in'which itis preheated by the action of the radiators 33.

B v adjustably moving the valve 39 the proportional amounts of newlymade smoke from the generator 36 and the smoke-and-air mixture'returningfrom the rear end of the smoke chamber may be regulated. This valve 39regulates also the travel of the mixture through the chamber 1() byclosing, more or less, the passage ST-according as to whether it isdesired that the fish are to be subjected ,to pressure to cause -thesmoke to be 'forced into the fish. l

In practice, it is most advantageous to have the fish when travelingupon the upper conveyers dried by gases containing a relatively smallproportion of smoke and be exposed while uponthe lower conveyers to amixture in which smoke predominates. ,This is accomplished in thepresent invention by positioning the air inlets 40 above the plane ofthe axis ofthe fan '11 so that the air if vadmitted in sufficientquantities is iinpelled by the fan into the smoke chamber in stratawhereof the uppeiportion is prac tically free from smoke. I

, The function of the blades 42 is two-fold,

first in directing the courses of thev gases to -selected conveyers andsecondly to act as baffles whereby the mixture .of air and smoke may beregulated. y'

The operation of the invention will, it is thought, be understood fromthe foregoing description. A

lVhat I claim, is-

l. In apparatus of the character described a smoke chamber, a source ofsmoke, connection between the latter and the front end of said chamber,a power driven fan-provided in said connection, a `conduit between therear end of the chamber and said connection, and a valve adapted to beused selectively for closing said conduit or the connection with respectto the source of smoke.

2. In apparatus of the character described, a smoke supply conduit, apower driven fan interposed between said conduit and the front end ofsaid chamber, a return pipe extending from rear end of the chamber tosaid supply conduit, a valve adapted to be used to regulate the flow ofsmoke through said conduit and the return pipe selectively, and means tosupply atmospheric air to the upper portion of said fan. l

3. Apparatus of the character .described comprising a smoke chamber,mea-ns to supply smoke and air into one end of the chamber and withdrawthe samecfrom the other end of the chamber, a seriesof superposedconveyers provided within the chamber, the upper of said conveyersextending exteriorly of the chamber, means to drive -Said oinveyerslalternately.7 opposite d- -r ections, a dstrbuter and unelevator and anelevator for supplying comestible articles A. throgh the medium of saiddistributer upon the outer endof the upper of said 4conveyers;

L -In#apparatus of the character de-U scribed,- asmoke chamber, andVmeans to' of superposed conveyer's Within the chamber,

veyer's.

5.111 apparatus of the. character des 15" scribed, a smoke chamber,conveyers pro-4 f Witness:

vided therein in vertically spaced relations,

1,337,974 l l G.-

-a smoke generator, a smoke and air duct affording communicationvbetween said genf lerator' and Saud' chambexya power drlven fan foreffecting the flow of smoke and air through said duct into the smokechamber,

and a heater included in said duct and rovided Wth controlled air inletsdispose at an elevationabove the plane of the fan axis..

Signed at Seattle, Wash., this 30th day of September, 1919. f

' RALPH R. CASEY.

PIERRE BARNES.

